So Are We About To Get Some Exciting News Then?

[Si Hunt]

The recolouring process of extracting 'colour' signals from a black and white telerecording has resulted in the full recolouring of a Dad's Army episode. It's been shown in a week or two, and there's a 2 page article on the process in the next Radio Times (Nigella Lawson cover, due out next week though copies have already been released to subscribers).

Steve Roberts has requested that discussion on its effects wrt the black and white Pertwee episodes of Doctor Who be put on ice until 13th December, when the process is being explained at Missing Believed Wiped (or some such conference). Are we about to get some exciting news?

The Radio Times article apparently "suggests" that some DW episodes are being lined up for the process.. couple this with the rumours about a "Planet of the Daleks" DVD release...

Who knows. It could be nothing - didn't they report that the process had failed when applied to an episode of "Mind Of Evil"?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Si.

[Antony Cox]

I'm quietly optimistic about this.

I've been following the Colour Recovery R&D for some time on their website - the progress reprots stopped suddenly after the initial news that attempts at an episode of DW had failed.

I guess the fact that they've been busy working on the Dad's Army episode explains why there were no updates on the CR website, so hopefully at least one B & W DW episode can be coloured, and with any luck that would either be Planet 3 or Invasion (of the Dinosaurs) 1.

As you say, time will tell...

[SiHart]

I hope they do Invasion of the Dinosaurs first! It's a far better episode than that pt 3 of Planet of the Daleks.

Anyway, like Ant, I remain quite excited and optimistic about the news. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Dad's Army episode turns out and what the results look like. It's really amazing what they can do with the technology these days. There's some very clever people out there.

Si xx

[Antony Cox]

I've actually been down to the BBC R & D place at Kingswood Warren, and without wishing to seem unkind, I've never seen a bunch of people fit their stereotype image more than the technicians there. They all look like mad professors with shocking hair and pasty complexions, and they wear scarves. Indoors. In the summer.

But to give them their due, as SI says, they are very, very clever!

[Larry]

I It's really amazing what they can do with the technology these days.

Si xx

problem is it's going to be all down to cost they might be able to re-colour the odd episodes like in planet and Invasion of the Dinosaurs but I vaguely seem to recall a discussion over on O.G a few years back, I think it was regarding Mind of Evil saying it would cost in excess of ? 20,000 pounds to recolour an episode.

[Rob McCow]

I think the 20 grand figure was for a full, computer constructed frame-by-frame recolourisation. Literally, colouring in each frame.

The process used on Dad's Army is apparently boosting the colour signal in the B&W film... by magic.

[Si Hunt]

Plus colourisation has been said to have decreased in cost recently.

Si.

[WhiteCrow]

With 2Entertain going down the swannee with Woolworths, this doesn't look likely.

Far more likely I think will be they release the stories as is. Then release them later with the colour episode restored, believing everyone will buy both sets.

[Si Hunt]

With 2Entertain going down the swannee with Woolworths, this doesn't look likely.

??

Si.

[shada pavlova]

With 2Entertain going down the swannee with Woolworths, this doesn't look likely.

Far more likely I think will be they release the stories as is. Then release them later with the colour episode restored, believing everyone will buy both sets.

Well that's just cruel.

[WhiteCrow]

Well that's just cruel.

Thats the world of big business sometimes shada alas. "Fleece the fans".

I remember once doing a WB online survey asking me "If the current season of Buffy was available on Video 6 months before it was released before DVD, would you buy both?". Purely coincidentally, Buffy and Angel were routinely released on Video 6 months before they were released on DVD.

Dunno - I just get really cynical about some releases sometimes.

[Larry]

With 2Entertain going down the swannee with Woolworths, this doesn't look likely.

Far more likely I think will be they release the stories as is. Then release them later with the colour episode restored, believing everyone will buy both sets.

I very much doubt that if 2-entertain do go out of business it will have any influence on weather or not these episodes are coloured with no 2-entertain I'd just expect BBC Worldwide to take controll .

[Pip Madeley]

Don't know what you're talking about Mike but 2|entertain aren't in any trouble, the BBC own the majority of the company and are looking to buy out Woolworths.

[P-Bal]

I for one would like a nice colourised Mind Of Evil, not least for when I meet Pik-Sen Lim next year... *plug*

[Jonno]

The issue of RT that Si refers to with this article is out in the shops now, and certainly the "before" and "after" photos look really good and impressive.

The article mentions that there are "other series where colour gaps could be filled, for example around 13 episodes from the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who and the first episode of Are You Being Served?"

This would imply Mind and Ambassadors as well as the two other single episodes.

I wonder if they can do the several eps of Steptoe and Son circa 1970 which were made in colour but only exist now in b&w...

[Pip Madeley]

I LOVE technology.

[P-Bal]

I love bananas and monkey nuts.

[Rob McCow]

I love fantom films. Hurrah!

It'd be great if the only thing they could recolourise was Pertwee's various jackets.

[Si Hunt]

I love Rock n Roll.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Conrad Knight Socks.

[Rob McCow]

I wonder if this technique could be used to boost the colour on the Pertwee stories that have already been recolourised, such as Terror of The Autons and The Daemons. If it could help the horribly washed out prints of The Mutants, it might help make that story a bit more watchable!

[Pip Madeley]

Good thinking Batman!

[Rob McCow]

Sorry! That last post wasn't enough was it?

And popcorn (catchphrase past use-by-date of June 2006).

[Antony Cox]

If it could help the horribly washed out prints of The Mutants, it might help make that story a bit more watchable!

If I may be frothingly pedantic for a moment (unheard of for a Doctor Who fan, I know... ), The Mutants exists on a mixture of 525 and 625 line PAL tapes, so they're not technically 'prints' as such. And no doubt when the DVD is released, the whole thing will be cleaned up and the colours regraded so I'm sure it'll look a whole lot better!

It'd be interesting what the results would be like on the B & W prints of Terror and Daemons, though!

[WhiteCrow]

I guess it's what makes Doctor Who fandom so unique. Part sci-fi fan, part historical archeologist when it comes to seeking missing prints.

Anyone up for,

Indiana Jones and Episode 4 of the Tenth Planet ???